Dunham Cellars wins top award at Walla Walla Valley Wine Competition

The Dunham Cellars 2013 Syrah won best of show at the fourth annual Walla Walla Valley Wine Competition. Dunham’s 2014 Lewis Vineyard Riesling earned the award for best white wine. (Photo by Andy Perdue/Great Northwest Wine)

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – A winery that has experienced incredible challenges the past four years won best of show at the fourth annual Walla Walla Valley Wine Competition.

Dunham Cellars topped a star-studded list of entries with its 2013 Syrah. The Walla Walla airport winery – one of the oldest in the valley – also had the best white wine in its 2014 Lewis Vineyard Riesling.

Drink Washington Wine, a small new winery run by Brad Binko, won three gold medals – not bad for a guy who graduated from the Walla Walla Community College winemaking program two weeks ago. He won best bubbly for his sparkling Riesling, as well as golds for his Northern White and Rocket Man Red.

Walla Walla Vintners, which won best of show in each of the past two Walla Walla Valley Wine Competitions and is the reigning Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year for Wine Press Northwest magazine, earned a double gold and best of class for its Dolcetto and two additional gold medals.

Woodward Canyon, the valley’s second-oldest winery, won two unanimous double gold medals for its Chardonnay and Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as a gold medal for its Estate Reserve.

The competition was staged at Walla Walla Community College. A portion of the proceeds from the Walla Walla Valley Wine Competition help fund scholarships at the college’s viticulture and enology program.

This year’s judges were:

April Reddout, wine program director for the Walter Clore Wine & Culinary Center in Prosser. Reddout regularly judges competitions across the Pacific Northwest, including the Cascadia Wine Competition, the Platinum Judging, the Great Northwest Invitational Wine competition and Savor NW.

Hank Sauer, a Walla Walla native, is master facilitator for Great Northwest Wine and a longtime wine educator who teaches seminars throughout the Pacific Northwest. He is a frequent judge and also helps coordinate competitions with Great Northwest Wine.

Mike Rader, a financial consultant in Kennewick, is a member of Great Northwest Wine’s tasting panel and can often be found orchestrating the backroom at such events as the Cascadia Wine Competition, the Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition and the Platinum Judging.

Paul Sinclair is a retired school teacher who is a longtime volunteer for Great Northwest Wine and Wine Press Northwest magazine. He can be found either judging regional wine competitions or helping to pour wines at them.

Ken Robertson is a member of Great Northwest Wine’s tasting panel and is a wine columnist for Wine Press Northwest magazine. Robertson is the retired executive editor of the Tri-City Herald and has been writing about wine since the 1970s. He judges wine competitions throughout the Pacific Northwest and serves as chief judge at two international tastings – the Cascadia Wine Competition and the Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition.

Bronze

About Andy Perdue

Andy Perdue is the editor and publisher of Great Northwest Wine. He is a third-generation journalist who has worked at newspapers since the mid-1980s and has been writing about wine since 1998. He co-founded Wine Press Northwest magazine with Eric Degerman and served as its editor-in-chief for 15 years. He is a frequent judge at international wine competitions. He is the author of "The Northwest Wine Guide: A Buyer's Handbook" (Sasquatch, 2003) and has contributed to four other books. He writes about wine for The Seattle Times. You can find him on Twitter and Google+.